By Bus with Vicki - Part 1

Hello Friday Fiction Fans,

It's another rainy morning. Or course some days this week started out sunny and the rain came after lunch, but yesterday is was rainy in the morning and then sunny after lunch. At least it hasn't been really hot and muggy this week. It feels more like the month of April. So much for summer. Not that I'm complaining as the heat and humidity of summer make it my least favorite month. :)

I feel like I've been rushing this week trying to get things done. Hmm, maybe I have. :) I've been trying to get blog posts ready for Read Another Page, and the story corrected for this blog. Not to mention listening to chapters from TCR-1 (The audio is almost finished!!!), practicing music, writing, and working on my big project.

The project I'm working on deserves some explanation. You see, my grandpa rides his bicycle. And he has since he was a boy working for Western Union delivering telegrams during WWII. Yep, he was one of those boys. :) Anyway, he shared his love of bike riding with his wife, their five children thirteen grandchildren and even the six great-grandchildren. Over the years he has ridden his bike to every county seat in Kansas, ridden to WV several times, rode with my three uncles from Seattle, WA, to Kansas City, MO, and taken dozens of other trips. My project is to compile all the diaries kept during the bike trips, and the photos into a book that will also include maps of most of the trips.

Right now I counted 39-40 bikes trips I have to record in this book! It's fun and daunting at the same time. My goal is to get this book finished by the end of the year, so I'm really trying to work on it as much as I can. I have to design each page in photoshop since I'm adding pictures and maps to the diaries. I can't wait to see it completed!

You will be happy to know (at least if you are TCR fans) that I've been writing TCR-6 and have the first few chapters written. I'm still struggling some on this, so keep praying. :)

My quote for today is:

God's best gifts are not in things

but in opportunities.

And now let me tell you just a bit about this new story. It's totally different from what you've been reading the last few weeks (or should I say months), but I hope you enjoy it. I started it last year after I had thought of an idea for one of my writing students, but dropped it for other writing projects. But now it's finished. There are several fun moments in the story that I hope you'll enjoy.

By Bus With Vicki

Part 1

    “Good-bye! Don’t forget to feed the fish, and and make sure Suzuki has fresh water every day!” Twelve-year-old Vicki Rogers waved to her family from the steps of the bus as she started up them. “Oh,” she whirled around once more before the driver could shut the door. “Don’t forget to cover Suzuki’s cage at night or he’ll be cranky in the morning, and–”
    “Honey,” her father interrupted, stepping close to the bus, “we’ll take care of everything. You already wrote a list of things. Now go find your seat. You don’t want to make the bus late.”
    “Goodness, no! Good-bye, Daddy!” With a farewell kiss, Vicki scrambled up the steps and hurried down the aisle. Finding an empty seat by a window, she quickly claimed it, dropping her travel bag and staring down at her family. “Good-bye,” she mouthed, alternating between waving with both hands and blowing kisses until the station had disappeared from her sight.
    With a long sigh, Vicki turned around and settled herself quite properly in her seat with her purse in her lap and her hands resting primly on the purse. She was going on a real trip. A smile tugged at her pretty mouth and would not be hid, though she bit her lower lip and tried to look calm, cool and collected, as she knew Susie would do had she been the one traveling. “But she’s not!” she thought, giving a little bounce in her seat, for she really could not sit still. “Susie’s not going, I am!” The smile came out in full and flooded her face with joy.
    Reveling in that one delicious thought, Vicki gave another satisfied sigh and looked out the window. Several of the other passengers on the bus couldn’t help but look at the child who had made such a commotion when she got on. It was almost impossible not to help smiling, and a few amused glances were exchanged. Vicki’s light brown hair, cut just below her shoulders, hung loose and free, only held back from her face by a wide ribbon headband whose bow, tied carefully that morning, no doubt, by her mother’s loving hand, was askew. A sprinkling of freckles crossed the child’s nose and danced about her flushed and rosy cheeks. Those who were closest noticed the sparkle and flash of her light brown eyes, the eager look in them as she turned from the window to cast a quick, excited glance about the bus before turning back to view the passing scenery.
    It was hard work, but somehow Vicki managed to remain outwardly calm and still as the bus drove through town. But, once the highway was reached, she gave up the effort, tucked one foot up and turned to study her fellow passengers. Those in front of her offered little to look at except the back of their heads, so Vicki, after a quick look, shrugged and settled more comfortably in her seat. Across the aisle sat a young couple, and Vicki was sure they hadn’t been married long. How she longed to slip over and ask, but, upon reflection, she decided she would wait. “They might not want a girl who has only just gotten on asking them questions,” she thought. “I’ll wait until later. I just hope they don’t get off before I can make their acquaintance.”
    Just behind the young couple, a man sat reading the newspaper. At least Vicki felt sure it was a man. “Who else but a man would hold the paper in such a fashion? I’m sure no lady would open it all the way up and then bury themselves behind it.” She gave a soft giggle. “Perhaps he is taking a nap. I wonder what he looks like.” For a full minute, Vicki sat perfectly still trying to imagine what the reader of the paper looked like. At last, having decided that he was older, mostly bald and had a mustache, she resumed her scrutiny of her fellow travelers.
    The back of the seats in the bus were so high that Vicki at last climbed onto her knees to get a better look over them. As she scanned the heads and faces behind her, her smile broke full across her face. Oh, such delight! Directly behind her sat two older ladies, one with a book which she wasn’t reading, and the other with some knitting. Both gave Vicki smiles and the young girl forgot about seeing who else might be on the same bus.
    Quickly she slipped from her seat, clutching her purse with one hand and the seat with the other, for the motion of the bus made her legs unsteady. She reached the aisle safely but then, as the bus gave an unexpected bump, she nearly lost her balance and half fell, half dropped into the empty seat beside Mrs. Bookreader. “Oh, may I sit here?” she gasped with a little laugh. “I was getting rather lonely all by myself.”
    “Of course you may, Child,” the lady with the book replied, patting Vicki’s arm in a friendly manner.
    “Thank you so much. My name is Victoria Anne Rogers, but everyone calls me Vicki. My brother says it is because I am never still long enough for anyone to say Victoria, but I don’t think that is true, for I am often quite still. Are you two sisters?”
    Both silver heads were shaken, and Mrs. Knitting said, “No, only very dear friends.”
    “Oh, have you been friends for long?” Vicki delighted in learning about other people as much as she enjoyed talking about herself.
    “Since we were babies,” Mrs. Bookreader replied. “We often slept in the same crib while our mothers worked or visited together.”
    Clasping her hands together, Vicki gave a long drawn out, “Oh!” She beamed on the two old ladies. “I’ve always dreamed of having a life-long friend, but I never knew anyone who really did. I thought that only happened in story books.”

Have you ever traveled alone?

Would you make friends with older ladies?

Do you get excited when you are going on a trip?

P.S. Have you checked out Homeschooled Authors to see what they have going this summer? If you haven't, you might want to.  And yes, I'm participating this year, so go check it out!